The Power Of Silence

It’s dark. And quiet. After a powerful storm that brought us 0.8 inches of rain in the space of fewer than thirty minutes, the power went out.

Three hours ago.

When B asked me how long the power would be out, I told him that it probably only be an hour or two. He is getting impatient and wanting the electricity to kick back on, but I’m actually enjoying the dim light of the solar lantern. I’m enjoying the silence: no freezer running, no A/C or fan, no ceiling fan.

Okay, so Missy started chewing on the bars of the cage and I threatened to put the cage in the bathroom if she didn’t stop because it’s an annoying noise, and she didn’t stop so I banished the rats to the bathroom and closed the door on them. But I didn’t hear any chewing after that, it’s been really quiet since then.

It’s funny: people move out to places like where we live wanting to “get away from it all”, wanting to enjoy the peace and quiet of the country. But we must have our electricity, and so total peace and quiet is almost always an elusive dream.

Except when the power goes out.

Let B complain all he wants. He’s going through this weird scared-to-be-alone phase (weird because he’s nearly ten years old, and when we first moved here he would explore the woods all by himself for hours at a time, and now he won’t even go 100 feet away from the house by himself). Being in the dark gives him even more heebie-jeebies.

But I’m going to enjoy the power outage while it –

Oh, what was that? Ah. The electric lamp came on. There goes the fan. Well, I’d better turn on the A/C since it’s coming up on bedtime. I’ll be happy that the power’s back on for the sake of all the frozen fruit in the freezer.

But next time we have a power outage, I’m going to enjoy the silence for all it’s worth.